Mate Great work. So refreshing to see a good technical and practical review. Well done keep up the good work in such a great review and insight. Thanks Sam
Thanks The spool gun makes it easy and it eliminates wire feed issues and not as expensive as a push pull dedicated hand -piece on high end professional set ups. John
I watched another review on how to use the aluminium spool welder and watched in horror as he forced the frazzled wire tip through the feed runners. It's always nice to see an operator that knows better and does better
Nice, I've been toying with the idea of mixing a TIG welder with a spool gun (specifically Unimig too), I'm really happy to see this video pop up in my home page. I like your work and your video quality, and expect to see me around more often.
Thank you for that information I just seen your video always wonder what the difference was between a spool gun and the wire feeding front of machine it helped out a little thanks again
Onya mate love your videos great review was on the edge for a second d and thought I may have chosen the wrong welder but you've managed to put me a peace! Legend!
Nice video John. I have had a Lincoln 180 with a spool gun for 10 years now and it welds about the same, it has also earned its keep time and again. Not saying the Unimig viper is bad, because it's not and it clearly does the job. BUT, if you are like me you will never be entirely happy with the welds, this video clearly shows the limitations of spool guns on "hobbyist" level welders, and to answer the common question, I would not build a boat with a non pulse low amperage mig. I have however used one to build what feels like countless casting decks, motor plates and rod lockers where a less than perfect weld is not going to sink me. For what it's worth for those wanting to do aluminium on a small scale where your time is your own get an AC capable mig/tig unit with a spool gun and learn to use the Tig so you have the option of fast and dirty or slow and pretty. The other option is pony up the extra coin and take a punt on the new pulse capable unit from Unimig, which is what I plan to do.( I already Tig now) Reality is if you are getting semi serious about fabrication like I am you really need both and unfortunately at this point an AC capable unit with pulse mig doesn't exist. I know this sounds like a rant but if I had my time again I would have just brought a Tig and sat down and forced myself to learn way back when.
Thanks for your input. I have a dedicated TIG and I use it like you say when you need strong and pretty. I know what you mean with the spool gun set up. I think you cant pay peanuts and expect the world. I found for the cost and the amount of ally welding I do nowadays the spool gun is all I need. Aluminium has got that expensive I find myself avoiding it. John
Thanks John, you've convinced me to get one. Yes mate, UNIMIG should reward you in some way for your presentation of their product... how about it UNIMIG? Guy Solien
Top review John. Very well put together. You can tell your an old hand by the way you trouble shoot through your set up. I've just purchase the Unimig Viper 182 (Ive already got a good ACDC tig) and 150A spool hand piece and will be burning some wire this week. I think your vid put me forward a couple of steps. Thanks 👍
You'll break your vice off the table before you break that weld !!!. I have the same Unimig 185 Viper and just bought the 240Amp spool gun for it. Can't wait to try it
Yeah I think you are right. If I don't show a strength test someone will say " The weld looks ok but its not strong" or some such crap. I am sure you will be impressed with the spool gun they are a tricky well made bit of gear. John
You won't be sorry. Mine is the only tool I own that I spray with oil and give it a polish up. I have had it over a year and it has been faultless. John
well done Sam. l have the exact same setup and am as impressed as you seem to be l did find the gun went way too fast at the setting given by unimig but after a play around l found the sweet spot as you did, thankyou for the information Digger its much appreciated ;)
Hahaha hope you got your Chrissy card from Unimig John! Mate outstanding vid, I was gunna buy a cigweld but now set on getting one of these. Great bit of kit, thanks again
G'day mate another good review if I was starting out again I would get me one of those for sure. We have on our farm A large and small old school stick Welders, Lincoln and kemppi migs And a Lincoln inverter tig /stick. How cool would it be to have the 1 Machine. Although would never part with the old stick welders 👍
@@farminglifeaustralia6716 yep mate same here. The MIG is so suited to the farm. I still drag the old stick out on bigger jobs (have many boxes of electrodes to use up) 👍
It would be ok, old aluminium that has been in salt water or just has oxidised is a bit of a Sh=t fight got to clean it really well and even then it never welds as good as new aluminium. I dont think it has any limitations in the actual welding. The normal tinnie does not have any metal that is to big for this machine. John
@@stevecrowe176 Yeah and one retailer is asking over $600 for it now, seems like everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and lifting prices for no good reason.
I have not had any trouble with the duty cycle. The unit has a thermal overload and I have never had it cut out. I am not welding heavy material all day mostly 4 6 10 mm with the odd piece of 12 mm never had a problem. John
i bought one of those spool guns and had nothing but dramas. wouldnt feed the wire unless it was arcing, the slightest tap of the wire tensioner would release pressure on the wire and you would get burn back up the tip and have to pull the thing apart to get your wire back, it was doing this almost every trigger pull for about 2 days until i took it back and they "upgraded the mother board" for 3 weeks (more like did fugall) came back with the same issues. was an absolute nightmare. so i sold it and bought a pulse mig. these cheap $700! spool guns are garbage for repeatability if you are actually using it to build a boat. not on a bench welding scraps. fragile and unreliable.
Wow, its $560!
185 machine is sweet, spool gun out of my price range
I am very happy with mine. John
Mate Great work. So refreshing to see a good technical and practical review. Well done keep up the good work in such a great review and insight. Thanks Sam
Thanks Sam. John
Thanks mate! I wasn't sure if I should get a spool gun and attempt Al welding. Your video has given me a lot of confidence.
Thanks The spool gun makes it easy and it eliminates wire feed issues and not as expensive as a push pull dedicated hand -piece on high end professional set ups. John
I watched another review on how to use the aluminium spool welder and watched in horror as he forced the frazzled wire tip through the feed runners. It's always nice to see an operator that knows better and does better
Give that soft alloy wire a chance and it will knot up. John
@@farminglifeaustralia6716 have you seen the Unimig Razor 200 Pulse HF Tig, Stick and Mig ? Little bit more but stuff me it's got some features
Nice, I've been toying with the idea of mixing a TIG welder with a spool gun (specifically Unimig too), I'm really happy to see this video pop up in my home page. I like your work and your video quality, and expect to see me around more often.
Thanks - You convinced me not to get dedicated doubble pulse mig, saving me heaps. Got a plate boat I want to modify a bit
I hope it works out ok for you. John
Thank you for that information I just seen your video always wonder what the difference was between a spool gun and the wire feeding front of machine it helped out a little thanks again
Thanks very much for watching. John
Onya mate love your videos great review was on the edge for a second d and thought I may have chosen the wrong welder but you've managed to put me a peace! Legend!
Its a good unit. Mine is still going strong. John
Nice video John. I have had a Lincoln 180 with a spool gun for 10 years now and it welds about the same, it has also earned its keep time and again. Not saying the Unimig viper is bad, because it's not and it clearly does the job. BUT, if you are like me you will never be entirely happy with the welds, this video clearly shows the limitations of spool guns on "hobbyist" level welders, and to answer the common question, I would not build a boat with a non pulse low amperage mig. I have however used one to build what feels like countless casting decks, motor plates and rod lockers where a less than perfect weld is not going to sink me. For what it's worth for those wanting to do aluminium on a small scale where your time is your own get an AC capable mig/tig unit with a spool gun and learn to use the Tig so you have the option of fast and dirty or slow and pretty. The other option is pony up the extra coin and take a punt on the new pulse capable unit from Unimig, which is what I plan to do.( I already Tig now) Reality is if you are getting semi serious about fabrication like I am you really need both and unfortunately at this point an AC capable unit with pulse mig doesn't exist. I know this sounds like a rant but if I had my time again I would have just brought a Tig and sat down and forced myself to learn way back when.
Thanks for your input. I have a dedicated TIG and I use it like you say when you need strong and pretty. I know what you mean with the spool gun set up. I think you cant pay peanuts and expect the world. I found for the cost and the amount of ally welding I do nowadays the spool gun is all I need. Aluminium has got that expensive I find myself avoiding it. John
Thanks John, you've convinced me to get one. Yes mate, UNIMIG should reward you in some way for your presentation of their product... how about it UNIMIG? Guy Solien
I'm happy to promote a good product. I have had my 185 for over a year now and I am very happy with it. Nothing worse than buyers remorse. John
Great presentation John!. Thank you. I hope they send you a $1,000 voucher with the Christmas card. You sold me.
Fingers crossed! No not really. Mine is still going strong. John
Great work mate , yes I want this welder for sure now. It's a bargain for the price . Great review and well explained. Thanks mate.
No problem 👍 And thanks for watching. John
great videp john.it 's a very good machine.thank's for passing on the info.hope you are both well.stay safe. gary
Thanks Gary One of the best things I ever bought. John
Cool, planning on purchasing a spool gun for my 185 Viper in the near future, alloy and bronze will be good to try.
Thanks for watching. John
Im sure it will come back to you John. Nice machine and video. Keep them coming mate.
Thanks Dave Bollox. I didn't do anything to terrible just a bit of fine tuning. John
Top review John. Very well put together. You can tell your an old hand by the way you trouble shoot through your set up. I've just purchase the Unimig Viper 182 (Ive already got a good ACDC tig) and 150A spool hand piece and will be burning some wire this week. I think your vid put me forward a couple of steps. Thanks 👍
I am glad it was of some help. John
You'll break your vice off the table before you break that weld !!!. I have the same Unimig 185 Viper and just bought the 240Amp spool gun for it. Can't wait to try it
Yeah I think you are right. If I don't show a strength test someone will say " The weld looks ok but its not strong" or some such crap. I am sure you will be impressed with the spool gun they are a tricky well made bit of gear. John
Thanks for the videos. ordering my unimig185 today
You won't be sorry. Mine is the only tool I own that I spray with oil and give it a polish up. I have had it over a year and it has been faultless. John
well done Sam. l have the exact same setup and am as impressed as you seem to be
l did find the gun went way too fast at the setting given by unimig but after a play around l found the sweet spot as you did, thankyou for the information Digger its much appreciated ;)
Maybe its a ploy to sell more wire. John
Hahaha hope you got your Chrissy card from Unimig John!
Mate outstanding vid, I was gunna buy a cigweld but now set on getting one of these. Great bit of kit, thanks again
Yeah I did. I won't buy anything CIG had a very bad experience 40 years ago and never went back. John
Great video mate, thanks for taking the time to share. Cheers
Thanks for watching and commenting. John
Love your videos mate.
Thanks very much. John
Mate fantastic review love ya honest work!
Much appreciated. John
Great video. Thanks for your insight. Hope you get that Christmas card. 🙃
Only joking I dont think I rate that much. John
nice review..good tool..and useful
Thanks for watching. Yes its very useful. John
Convinced me thanks great work
Thanks for that. John
G'day mate another good review if I was starting out again I would get me one of those for sure. We have on our farm
A large and small old school stick
Welders, Lincoln and kemppi migs
And a Lincoln inverter tig /stick.
How cool would it be to have the 1
Machine. Although would never part with the old stick welders 👍
I did a lot of stick welding for years now I am just so used to the MIG and I am always in a hurry I just weld it up and go. John
@@farminglifeaustralia6716 yep mate same here. The MIG is so suited to the farm. I still drag the old stick out on bigger jobs (have many boxes of electrodes to use up) 👍
Thanks heaps John! So good to hear an Aussie voice describing how to get sh*t done. Just to be sure, this is a DC machine?
Yes it is a DC machine. Thanks for watching and commenting. John
Great vid john. Would this be ok for repairing aluminium tinnies [boats] or are they abit thin.?
It would be ok, old aluminium that has been in salt water or just has oxidised is a bit of a Sh=t fight got to clean it really well and even then it never welds as good as new aluminium. I dont think it has any limitations in the actual welding. The normal tinnie does not have any metal that is to big for this machine. John
Good to see Aussies making instructional videos. Very easy to understand and no mucking around with all the Bullshit like the yanks do
Thanks for watching. John
LOve you bro!!!
I feel privileged. John
How much is the spool gun? The one for a Cigweld machine I’m looking at is $500! If this is cheaper I might go with this one. Thx
From memory about $400. John
@@farminglifeaustralia6716 Thanks John.
Now 28 July 2023 $560!!
@@stevecrowe176 Yeah and one retailer is asking over $600 for it now, seems like everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and lifting prices for no good reason.
What aluminium projects do you have lined up?
I need to build a tank in the future. Now that I have a good set up I will make more things from ally. John
Has anyone found the duty cycle of Viper 185 too short?
I'm considering buying one to build a box trailer, in mild steel or possibly aluminium.
I have not had any trouble with the duty cycle. The unit has a thermal overload and I have never had it cut out. I am not welding heavy material all day mostly 4 6 10 mm with the odd piece of 12 mm never had a problem. John
Thanks for the Advice 😊
Champ!
Thanks. John
i bought one of those spool guns and had nothing but dramas. wouldnt feed the wire unless it was arcing, the slightest tap of the wire tensioner would release pressure on the wire and you would get burn back up the tip and have to pull the thing apart to get your wire back, it was doing this almost every trigger pull for about 2 days until i took it back and they "upgraded the mother board" for 3 weeks (more like did fugall) came back with the same issues. was an absolute nightmare. so i sold it and bought a pulse mig. these cheap $700! spool guns are garbage for repeatability if you are actually using it to build a boat. not on a bench welding scraps. fragile and unreliable.
Ok thats interesting I have had no such issues. If I do I will do a video on it. John
I THOUGHT
UNIMIG IS MADE
IN THE GREAT NATION- AUSTRALIA!!!!!?????
No like all welders they are made in China. John